1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 295 Numb from counting money
The saying that vegetable prices, or market conditions, fluctuate with the wind and rain is timeless.

They just vary in size.

Some storms cause no ripples, while others are like a battle cry; the rain that started early yesterday morning was undoubtedly the latter.

Chen Jiazhi strode through the stalls, which mostly sold the most common vegetables in Lingnan during the summer.

Winter melon, bitter melon, loofah~
The supply of leafy vegetables has decreased significantly.

This is not surprising; unless you can sell directly to consumers, few people dare to harvest on rainy days.

Soon after, he saw the sign for Kaopu Fresh.

It wasn't bright enough in the night, but the distribution center was brightly lit, with baskets, bags, and boxes of purchased vegetables piled on the ground.

Several workers were sorting and weighing the orders, and Li Cai and Li Xiu, who had arrived earlier, were also helping.

Seeing him come in, Li Xiu smiled and said, "Zhengxu and the others have already gone to deliver the vegetables."

Many restaurants and eateries received calls yesterday afternoon. In addition to the new customers who joined early yesterday morning, there were also many new customers during the day and last night.

Orders have already exploded; we have hundreds of orders to deliver today, totaling over 10,000 kilograms of vegetables!

Chen Jiazhi was also surprised, and his heart beat faster for a moment.

"Great things come from long-term accumulation!"

"Hmm~" Li Xiu smiled, her eyes crinkling into crescent moons. "Why don't you go to the office and rest for a while?"

"No need, I'll help too."

They only hired two or three workers, all of whom came from the Dongxiang vegetable market, and they were clearly overwhelmed with sorting right now.

Chen Jiazhi helped sort the vegetables for a while and felt that the place was a bit crowded. There were many kinds of vegetables to be delivered, including leafy greens, melons, root vegetables, and spices such as scallions, ginger, and garlic. Different kinds of vegetables were easily mixed together.

"We also need to find a way to get a bigger venue."

One of the workers said, "Boss Chen, this place is fine, there's plenty of room to work, there's no need to spend any more money."

"We should spend the money!" Li Xiu said unequivocally in support. "Jiazhi is right. This place is a bit small. We can't let this brand lose face."

"Haha~" Chen Jiazhi laughed, "That's exactly right. Not only do we need to move to a bigger venue, but we also need to make the signboard bigger. We also need to customize two sets of work clothes for each of you. You have to wear them for delivery and sorting. People will know at a glance that you are a reliable company."

"Boss, boss lady, working for you is so comfortable! We'll definitely work hard. My husband was still out delivering vegetables yesterday even though it was raining so hard."

Who is your husband?

“Zhou Xiaoxiong, my name is Wang Lan. My husband said that you and the boss were junior high school classmates.”

"So you're Little Bear's wife! I'm sorry, this is the first time I've met you."

"It's alright. If you hadn't taken us in, I don't know what kind of life Little Bear and I would be living now."

Wang Lan is a girl with a round face. Chen Jiazhi doesn't know her, but Zhou Xiaoxiong was his classmate in junior high school, and they got along quite well. Zhou Xiaoxiong went to work in Shenzhen last year, but he's doing very poorly.
In particular, Zhou Xiaoxiong spent a long time living on the streets.

At that time, it was easier for female factory workers to find jobs and they could even manage to get factory accommodations. But things weren't much better; after a year of work, the two of them couldn't even afford train tickets back to their hometown.
When he called home during the Spring Festival, he happened to learn about Chen Jiazhi's situation. After the Spring Festival, he came to Huacheng and worked at the Dongxiang vegetable market for two months before Chen Zhengxu brought him to the distribution center.

Chen Jiazhi smiled and said, "You're quick and efficient too. We need people like you here."

Wang Lan said, "Oh dear, once you get paid, you have to work hard. That's what you should do. You don't know, last year when I joined the factory, they withheld my salary for two months before paying me, and they deducted all sorts of things. In the last month, I only got one or two hundred yuan."

Those bosses are so heartless; they'll definitely suffer a terrible fate and go to hell sooner or later!

Seemingly realizing she had been too harsh, Wang Lan smiled again, "Mr. Chen, you guys are different. You're all so kind, you're sure to live to be a hundred."

Chen Jiazhi said, "Don't make me sound so good. Good people don't live long, but evil people live for a thousand years. I'm just good to my own people."

"Anyway, you're a good person in my heart."

Chen Jiazhi received another "good guy" card, leaving him both amused and exasperated. He was actually just a little more conscientious than most bosses, but he was still quite ruthless to outsiders. Just ask Sister Xu and Xia Youche if you don't believe me.

After a few moments of joking and laughing, everyone got back to work.

There aren't many large orders to deliver; most are small orders.

Generally speaking, a restaurant that serves 100 people a day uses about 30 to 40 catties of vegetables per day. If the vegetables are divided into different types, the amount will be even less.

A little while later, Chen Zhengxu drove back in his Isuzu to load vegetables, but left again before he even had a chance to drink a sip of water.

Even if all deliveries are made using Isuzu trucks, it would still take at least three or four trips a night.

However, we'll still need to use a minivan along the way, because in some areas the roads are narrow, and the smaller Changhe minivan is much more maneuverable.
Watching the Isuzu drive away once again, Chen Jiazhi muttered, "I still need to buy a car."

"Buy it!" Li Xiu said, "If you want to buy a car, then buy another one!"

Immediately, several pairs of eyes in the room turned to them.

Chen Jiazhi: "I'm thinking of buying another vehicle for the distribution center; having an extra vehicle will make it faster."

“Uh…” Li Xiu hesitated for a moment and said, “It’s up to you. Buy it if you want to!”

Chen Jiazhi nodded and said, "Yes, it would be best to hire another driver."

"Boss!" Wang Lan called out, "I want Xiao Xiong to learn to drive, and once he learns, he can drive for you too. He really wants to drive, and every day after get off work he talks to me about how cool Chen Zhengxu's driving is."

We might not have enough money for driving lessons. Could we borrow some from you first and then have it deducted from our salaries?

Wang Lan acted very decisively, which slightly surprised Chen Jiazhi.

He hesitated for a moment, then readily agreed. He had initially paid for Chen Zhengxu and Li Cai's expenses, but had long since paid them back, so Zhou Xiaoxiong could do the same.

"Thank you, boss! We'll definitely work hard!"

The atmosphere in the distribution center became somewhat awkward for a moment, but the other two workers remained silent.

When Chen Zhengxu and Zhou Xiaoxiong returned, Wang Lan told Zhou Xiaoxiong about learning to drive, and also mentioned changing the driving location and buying a new car.

Zhou Xiaoxiong was naturally overjoyed, and felt even more energetic when moving goods. As for the other male worker, Lao Du, he was a little jealous.

No man can resist a car, let alone a car.

Old Du wanted to speak up, but his wife stopped him.

Chen Zhengxu pondered for a moment and said, "Uncle, we need to change venues and buy cars. Reliable Fresh doesn't have that much money in its accounts!"

"I still have some here."

"It doesn't feel right," Chen Zhengxu hesitated. "We haven't even recouped our investment yet. Buying another vehicle will make it even harder to break even. How about we buy two more tricycles? Tricycles will do just as well."

Chen Jiazhi said, "It's alright. Be bold in your actions. Once we scale up, that's when we'll really start making money!"

Chen Zhengxu hesitated, then Chen Jiazhi patted him on the shoulder, "It's settled then, let's go deliver the goods first."

Delivery definitely requires vehicles.

Chen Jiazhi even considered buying a refrigerated truck.

Domestically produced refrigerated trucks already existed during this period, but they were rarely seen. He only learned about them from the newspapers, which showed that Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, had started producing refrigerated trucks in the 1980s.

However, the scale is not large at present, and it does not involve meat or seafood in addition to vegetables, so there is no need for it for the time being.

Time passed, and the sorting work was finally completed. Chen Jiazhi and Li Xiu came to the office to catch their breath.

Jiang Xiaoyan hadn't started work yet; she normally worked the day shift.

Li Xiu poured Chen Jiazhi a cup of hot water from the thermos and asked, "Jiazhi, when are you going to buy a car?"

"Let's wait a bit. Let Jiang Xiaoyan hire a driver first, and then we'll go buy it when the person arrives."

"Oh~"

Li Xiu leaned closer and whispered, "We have 28 yuan in cash at home. We bought a truck and there's still some left over. Would you like to buy a car too?"

"so many?"

"Yes, it's all from selling vegetables at the Dongxiang vegetable market every day for the past three months."

Chen Jiazhi hasn't really been paying attention to this matter lately. Anyway, after selling vegetables, he just throws the money into his room and then forgets about it.

Upon closer examination, although vegetable prices are sluggish, Dongxiang's advantage lies in its stable vegetable production volume.

The vegetable output over these three months has been between 150,000 and 200,000 jin, with an additional 300 to 400 jin of snow peas added regularly.

In addition, all the necessary supplies were prepared after the cold wave ended, and the biggest expense each month was paying salaries.

They saved 28 yuan in three months, with a monthly profit of over 9 yuan, which is not bad.

After thinking for a while, Chen Jiazhi said, "Let's not buy a car, let's use this money to buy a house."

Li Xiu asked in surprise, "After buying a house, where will you get so much money to give to Kaopu Fresh? You don't mean to take a cut from Jiangxin Vegetable Market, do you?"

"Jiangxin Market will not distribute dividends for the time being. We have a lot of money this time, and it's difficult for us to avoid taxes. But we can ask Jiangxin Market to inject capital into Kaopu Fresh, or we can lend them money."

Previously, the dividends he received from Jiangxin Vegetable Market were either distributed as a combination of salary and bonuses plus cash, or he used the dividends to exchange for shares, which saved him a lot of taxes.

But now he is the major shareholder, and Jiangxin Vegetable Market has a lot of money in its accounts, so it's not worthwhile to transfer it directly to his personal account.

Li Xiu asked, "Aren't there two other shareholders?"

"Are you worried they won't agree? I can make the decision myself."

"I don't want them to take advantage of Kaopu Fresh."

Chen Jiazhi smiled and said, "There's no need to be so concerned. Xu Wenxiang and Huang Jianyuan are both in the catering and hotel industry, which will be of great help to Kaopu Fresh in developing its business."

Some of these newly added major clients were the ones they introduced at the beginning.

"Oh~"

After resting for a while, the two drove back. They were tired of driving back and forth every day, and it was time to buy a house in the city.

After returning home and going upstairs, Chen Jiazhi habitually placed his bag on a chair in his room. He paused for a moment, then closed the door, opened the bag, and found it filled with money, neatly categorized inside.

It was a bag full of money. In the past, Li Xiu would count it for him, but now he had to count the money again, which made him feel that this job was really tiring!

How could you not be tired carrying nearly 7 yuan in cash?

Looking back, during the time he was selling green peppers, he was so busy making money at the market that he forgot about the great contributor who made the money at home.

In May, the sales of green peppers alone reached 2.4 to 500,000 yuan.

Apart from the fact that the payments to Hong Kong were made through corporate transfers, the more than one million yuan in sales from stall number 63 were all counted by Li Xiuqing.

No wonder she was so decisive when talking about spending money today; she's become numb from counting money every day.

(End of this chapter)